True or False: Contract Coding is Too Expensive

Are you sure? While at first glance the hourly rate of a contract coder versus one you would hire internally appears to be more expensive, there are some other factors that come into play to make these numbers closer than you might think.

First, let’s make sure that we are comparing apples to apples. The experience and quality you get with MedKoder consultants is an average of 14 years. If you were to hire the same person internally, what would their wage be? $23 per hour? Add on to that 20-30% for a benefits package and another few percentage points for work tools. Don’t forget that you need someone to manage this person, audit their progress as a new hire, cover their vacation time, and reimburse their expenses for CEUs to keep their certification.

Unfortunately, the buck does not stop here. There is time and money put into your potential new coding personnel before they are even hired. Consider the time spent on recruitment, onboarding, and training and then factor in the amount of turnover you have at your organization…

Sorry, but the buck is still going. What about quality concerns? If your internal coder makes mistakes, it is on your A/R staff to identify it and your dollar for the coder to go back and make corrections. Not only does this redundant work decrease productivity, but if the quality in your coding is not there, it could be even more revenue down the drain with costly coding errors.

The process of going at it alone and doing everything internally can be stressful and costly. It is estimated that with benefits, work tools, management overhead, PTO coverage, quality assurance, and ongoing education can be as much as 40-50% higher that an hourly wage. This means if you pay your coder $23 per hour, the real cost is as much as $56 per hour. And you have a headache.

So, let’s take that quiz again:

True or False: Contract Coding is Too Expensive

False.

Call MedKoder, the industry leaders in medical coding management and technology solutions. We have an obsession for quality and we can give you medical coding with financial peace.